SolarCity may include EV savings in its bids

In a sign that solar-charged driving is poised to transform not only the transportation sector but the solar industry as well, one of America’s leading solar companies, SolarCity, is reportedly moving toward officially incorporating EV+PV into its bidding process.

As we at SolarChargedDriving.Com have discovered, calculating solar PV as offsetting gasoline — which is far more expensive than electricity — can dramatically change the solar value equation.

SolarCity has not yet worked out the details on exactly how it will “code” gasoline offset into its bids, but a source familar with the potential changes in the solar company’s bidding process said it won’t be that difficult to establish a formula.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “Someone who’s using PV for an EV is not buying any gas. Now they’ve got that gas money in their pocket.”

Solar system as a fueling stationIndeed. As we have discovered after having tapped a new 5.59 kW solar system to produce 2,500 extra kWh of electricity in 4 1/2 months — the equivalent of 10,000 miles of driving in an EV and $1,500 worth of gasoline at $3 per gallon and 20 m.p.g. — a solar system can pump a lot of gas money into what amounts to a personal fuel bank.

If SolarCity moves to officially add an EV column to its residential PV bids — and our source says it likely will — it will become possibly the first solar company in the U.S., and possibly the world, to do so.

However, SolarCity certainly won’t be the last, predicts our source, as other solar companies will quickly realize the benefit of adding the gasoline offset variable to the solar bidding process.

“No one else has thought of doing this yet,” he said. “There aren’t that many people out there who know what (SolarCity) knows: EVs increase the appeal of PV. But they’re going to learn quickly.”

Like this story? Interested in the solar EV/PHEV synergy? Join our Sun Miles™ Cluband start meeting & interacting with other people around the world who want to drive, or already are driving, their cars on sun! Register to join us today!

About The Author

Christof Demont-Heinrich is founder, creator and editor of SolarChargedDriving.Com, which he launched in September 2009. A journalism professor at the University of Denver (DU), Demont-Heinrich is a lifelong environmentalist who loves to bird, hike, camp, and bike. As passionate as he is about the environment -- and about promoting the synergy between solar power and electric cars, he is equally passionate about writing.